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On April 4, the Yangtze River Delta Railway ushered in the peak of passenger flow during the Qingming Festival. It is expected to send 4.1 million passengers today, 365,000 more than the same period last year, an increase of about 9.8%, and is expected to set a new record for single-day passenger volume. This years Qingming Festival railway transportation will start from April 3 to 7. The Yangtze River Delta Railway is expected to send 17.6 million passengers in 5 days, with an average daily passenger flow of 3.52 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.The yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury note fell to a six-month low of 3.6550% and was last at 3.6611%.On April 4, local time on April 3, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. said that about 20% of the layoffs in the Department of Government Efficiency were wrong and needed to be corrected. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services laid off about 10,000 people on the 1st. Kennedy said that people who should not have been laid off were laid off, and the department is restoring their positions. Kennedy said that canceling the entire lead poisoning prevention and monitoring department of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was one of the mistakes. At present, it is unclear what other projects Kennedy may plan to restore.Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda: Will consider the impact of food costs on consumers.On April 4, local time on the 3rd, the automobile company Stellantis said that due to the impact of the US import automobile tariff policy, the company decided to lay off 900 employees in its five US factories and suspend production operations at two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico. Antonio Filosa, Chief Operating Officer of Stellantis Americas, said that the US factories that were laid off were powertrain and stamping parts factories, which produced spare parts for two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico. According to the plan, the assembly plant in Canada will stop production for two weeks, and the assembly plant in Toluca, Mexico will suspend production throughout April. Filosa said the company is "continuing to evaluate the medium- and long-term impact of tariffs on operations."

The Pentagon Requests Funding For Mining Ventures in Australia And The U.K.

Charlie Brooks

May 12, 2022 09:39

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The U.S. Department of Defense has requested funding for facilities in the United Kingdom and Australia that process key minerals used in the production of electric vehicles and weapons, deeming the proposal vital to national security.


The request to amend the Cold War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) was part of the Pentagon's recommendations to Congress on how to draft the next National Defense Authorization Act, a military financing law.


When it finalizes the bill later this year, Congress may approve or reject the suggested amendments.


Washington is making more efforts to lessen the United States' reliance on China for lithium, rare earths, and other minerals required in the production of a variety of technology. Existing legislation prohibits the use of DPA money to excavate new mines, but they can be used for processing equipment, feasibility studies, and facility renovations. Currently, only American and Canadian facilities are eligible for DPA funding.


The Pentagon stated in its request to Congress that adding Australia and the United Kingdom would "allow the U.S. government to leverage the resources of its closest allies to enrich U.S. manufacturing and industrial base capabilities and increase the nation's competitive advantage in a highly competitive environment."


The Pentagon stated that relying solely on domestic or Canadian sources "unnecessarily restricts" the DPA program's capacity to "ensure a robust industrial basis."


A Pentagon official was unavailable for further comment at this time.


The U.S. mining industry's trade association, the National Mining Association, declined to comment.

RARE SOILS

The United Kingdom refines nickel and has many proposed lithium and rare earths processing facilities. Australia has mining and processing facilities for a variety of minerals, including iron ore, lithium, copper, and rare earths, a group of 17 metals used to create magnets that convert electrical energy into mechanical motion.


Lynas Rare Earths Ltd., based in Australia, was awarded a DPA grant of $30,4 million by the Pentagon in order to construct a processing facility in Texas in partnership with Blue Line Corp.


Amanda Lacaze, chief executive officer of Lynas, protested last month that the cash had not yet been distributed, citing continuing negotiations regarding the security of her company's intellectual property.


The Pentagon has also provided at least $45 million to MP Materials Corp, which owns the only rare earths mine in the United States but relies on China for processing.


The monies will support MP's attempts to resume processing of these important minerals in the United States. MP, based in Las Vegas, announced last week that it has begun receiving these monies and that the Pentagon will have "some rights to technical data" as a result.